TrashMan wrote:So far it seem the only way to take it out is to intercept it.

Exactly.

It's nearly impossible to kill anything in 2 minutes unless you vastly out-tech / out-gun the opposition. In the case of the system killer... I believe it is leviathan class? Can any leviathan even be destroyed in under 2 minutes?

Being given only 2 minutes to destroy it in system indicates, to me at least, that if you want to stop sparky, you are intended to intercept.

My only problem with this is that humans, hivers and much of the time zuul (half the playable races) don't have a very good method of doing so all the time... But you should still have at least one full 5 minute battle via intercept before he reaches your planet.

Also, do you have access to absorbers? Your best bet might be to Zerg it at point blank range with a lot of absorber ships armed with a lot of PD.

If I remember correctly:

1. The system killer has a lot of missiles2. It uses a lot of energy weapons (hence absorbers)3. There is also quite of bit of PD so missiles and the like won't be effective; maybe not BRs either; although you might be able to overwhelm it with COL? Implosion mines?

I can't remember ... this was months ago. I fought it as Liir. Lucky I had a leviathan fleet at the time that I used. But back then, the game used to crash too often and I think I lost that save file to a bunch bugs.

I had a promising liir game graced by the appearance of the system killer.. damn thing appeared around turn 200, I had some Dreads with Blazer sections, but my main weapon was fusion cannon and phasors + BR, so I thought, yeah he's going down. At a time I had 5-6 fleets going to intercept some had Liir Blazer +assault DN which have around 16 HCL.. still didn't have a chance. The reasons are:

1. He is still too fast.. I have a few volleys to fire and off he goes.2. If I intercept him not on the same course but from a system on the side to it's course, my ships start far away from the system killer.. which makes it very hard to catch up to him.3. He has an ungodly ammount of structural points, which in combination with the SK's way of running makes it very hard/ or impossible with my level of tech to kill

AFAIK he heals as he eats planets is that still the case? and one more question does he still go in a straight line and leave the galaxy or is there no other way than starting over?

Wouldn't it be better to have the SK stop upon interception and destroy the threat before proceeding? or would that make it to easy for the player>

Mecron wrote:why did you not set up your defenders on the side he was going to arrive from...did it not show you him coming on the starmap?

The problem was that my liir ships are pretty slow at fusion level, no way to reach the target system in time to start from the right angle. So the best way was to intercept him from a side system where I had my biggest navalbase and fleet concentration.

In the end I resorted to cheating, to slow him down and lower his Structure points to 1/2 (feel pretty bad about it..) but he was going straight for my core worlds.. and I didn't want to end this game

Maybe it would be worth considering to make the syst killer fight a fleet actively when intercepted, but rush straight to the planet as he does now when fought in a system?

EDIT: on second thought I may have overeacted, could have sacrificed a system or two to wait for him to reach a system with a big naval base to move all my forces there, so that I could get a better intercept vector. Perhaps that way I could have beaten him ..

Still, I think it would be cooler to be able to have a showdown with him in deep space instead of trailing him with my ships, lauching volleys of torps and missiles, he has pretty impressive forward armaments, he could put up one hell of a fight.

Mecron wrote:I have no idea why you can't engage him forward unless you are always choosing pursue as your move mode. Even if he trundles past you his speed is not that much greater that its a blow by.

His speed seems the same as my Liir-fusion DN, so once he goes past me, I'm stuck on his tail. I tried to use max speed, but I risk beeing blown to bits by his missiles before I can overtake him..

Galwail wrote:I also remember, that when I was playing hivers, my War/AM dreads were able to keep up with him and exchange broadsides while he was approaching the planet.

That would be a perfect situation for hivers but I was in the fusion age, so keeping up was a problem I ussually don't go for AM very early.. this time I even took my time and explored the psi tree and I have to say Crush is a mean psy power